No, Not Everyone In America Can Go To College And, Yes, Student Loan Forgiveness is Critical

I once had a fairly heated debate with a friend who grew up in one of the most affluent, exclusive enclaves of Long Island. It started when he said, “Anyone in this country can go to college, no matter how poor they are. There are no excuses.”

That was surely easy for him to say as someone who was born into privilege. Born into a family of college graduates. Someone who was exposed to the ideal of higher-education from early childhood. Someone whose high school classmates obsessed not over whether they will go to college, or what college they’ll go to…but more so, which Ivy League colleges they’ll be applying to and hope to attend. In short, their socio-economic advantages guaranteed whatever path they chose.

But that’s precisely the problem with those who are privileged: they don’t believe they’re privileged. Because that’s all they know. They believe we’re all competing on a level playing field, no matter what good or bad fortune we’re born into. Worse, they grow up thinking they’re ‘self made’. It’s the old adage, ‘born on 3rd base and think you hit a triple’.

In many ways they lack compassion, empathy and an understanding of, and appreciation for, what it’s like to grow up poor, afraid and discouraged from loftier personal goals by…